Lookonline.com is the longest running fashion site on the Internet. Published since 1994.

Saturday, December 04, 2010

Lookonline Celebrates 16 Years On-Line

The "Godfather" of Fashion Websites

Lookonline.com is the longest running on-line fashion publication in the world. Before there was Style.com, Hypermode.com, FashionInternet.com, NYstyle.com, Fashionmall.com, Elle.com, hairnet.com, Hintmag.com and even Fashion.net, there was us. We have not always garnered the attention, funding or notoriety of some other of these fashion sites, but those in our industry, who have followed Lookonline's development over the years, know we helped pioneer the use of the Internet in providing real-time coverage of fashion events, regularly scheduled video reports, fashion blogs (DFR: Daily Fashion Report has been in blog format for almost 8 years and is recognized as the first fashion blog), market reports, editorial cartoons and original runway and event photography long before there were sites like Style.com or Fashionweekdaily.

Since our official launch was on December 1, 1994 as a BBS dial-up service (does anyone even remember what a BBS service is or was?), the Lookonline has been on-line "officially" for 16 years. However, we were already a BBS service by subscription in early 1993 (our first subscriber was Harper's Bazaar), and it was not until December of 1994 did we began a website (hosted under another domain name) in addition to our BBS site. Later in 1995, we discontinued our BBS service and concentrated on developing our website using our own domain name 'lookonline.com'.

For the record, our official launch was as a party/benefit called "CyberTaste" for the "Charge Against Hunger" program from American Express and Share Our Strength on December 1, 1994 (see above copy of invitation) The event was held at Sony Plaza at 550 Madison Avenue in New York. Over 850 members of the public and a small group of press (WWD did not show up) attended the opening that featured 13 chefs from top New York restaurants serving their signature dishes; a designer auction, wine tasting, desserts, and a live 20 man jazz orchestra. According to officials at Sony, it was one of the largest, if not the largest event ever held to this day at the Sony Plaza's Atrium. (Rhonda Erb put the whole event together for us). Major sponsors for the event included American Express, Food & Wine Magazine, Tourneau, Romana Sambuca, Coca Cola Bottling Company of NY, Georgette Klinger, Colorite, and Sony Plaza.

Does anyone besides our company remember the event? Sixteen years on-line is like a century in the development of the Internet. It was a struggle during the early years to gain recognition, much less respect for our site. I can still remember the days when fashion designers and publicists would look at me in disbelief, if they looked at me at all, when I talked about the importance of fashion websites. I was like the invisible man. I would be running around among them, but no one really knew or cared about fashion websites or, for that matter, even the Internet. Well, as the song says: "the times they are a changing", the Internet is now a force to be reckoned with, and fashion sites and blogs number in the many hundreds.

I want to personally thank our many contributors who, over the past 16 years, have helped support our site. First and foremost my editor-in-chief, Marilyn Kirschner, whose fashion expertise and determination has set the tone for our editorial coverage; and senior editor Bernadine Morris, who lent her name, expertise and a guiding hand. Also special mention goes to Randy Brooke, an exceptional photographer who was always there when we needed him; and Diane Clehane for providing us with first class coverage of major fashion and entertainment events. Also special thanks goes to Susan Sommers for her timely suggestions, Adrienne Weinfield-Berg and Rhonda Erb, both good friends of lookonline, whose special assignment reporting gave our editorial greater depth; Stacy Lomman, Isabelle Erb and Muriel Geny-Triffaut for their contributions, and Grace Mirabella for hosting our first three 'Master of Fashion Video Interviews'.

2 comments:

Simply wish to say your article is as surprising. The clarity in your post is just excellent and i could assume you are an expert on this subject. Well with your permission allow me to grab your feed to keep up to date with forthcoming post. Thanks a million and please continue the enjoyable work.

Featured Post

The 2018 "New" Best Dressed List Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez The notion of ‘Best Dressed’ is elusive and highly subjective. I...

E-mailed Newsletter: Get every new post sent directly to your in box

Exclusive Sponsor

We’re pleased to welcome Talbots as the premiere exclusive sponsor of Wednesdays at Michael’s by Diane Clehane and salute the company’s mission to empower women in all aspects of their lives.
Through their relationships and carefully curated product lines, Talbots strives to give women the confidence to express their best selves in all aspects of their lives – every day. Fundamentally, Talbots believes that the better we do, the more we can do to positively impact the lives of women.

Support our site

Become a supporting member of our site for a one time contribution of only $59. Click
here and become a member. Our site has been up for 23 years and we depend upon the "kindness of strangers".

New York Market Reports

Marilyn Kirschner our editor-in-chief and former senior Market Editor of Harper's Bazaar for many years reports on the Fall/Winter and Spring/Summer New York collections for every season going back over 15 years. These kinds of reports are found no where else and are offered free to our readers. Additional past commentary was written for us by Bernadine Morris the former senior fashion writer of the New York Times.
Click here for the latest fall/winter 2018 report and links to all the other past reports..

About Me

Lookonline.com is the longest publishing online fashion site in the world. It was launched first as a BBS service in 1993 and has been on the Internet since December 1994. The DFR: Daily Fashion report is also the first fashion blog and was started in early 2002 as the site's main news page. Before launching the site, I was for many years a New York fashion photographer.